I've never played a live casino game before. I've only played in impromptu home games and online so I'm having trouble understanding the procedure for a so-called "chip race". Robert's Rules of Poker says...

"deal one card to a player for each odd chip possessed. Cards are dealt clockwise starting with the 1-seat, with each player receiving all cards before any cards are dealt to the next player. The player with the highest card gets enough odd chips to exchange for one new chip, the second-highest card gets to exchange for the next chip, and so forth, until all the lower-denomination chips are exchanged."

How do you ever lose the chip race? It sounds like you're dealing for no reason. Aren't you just rounding up everybody's odd chips. It talks about how you can't be eliminated by losing a chip race but how do you lose?

There's got to be something here that Robert forgot to explain.